From the top you get a panoramic view of the city.

[99bottles]

From the top you get a panoramic view of the city.

I found this on the Longman website, and it is exemplifying the word view. What I want to ask is, can one say have instead of get?

From the top you have a panoramic view of the city.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, have also works in the context but remember that the two verbs have different meanings, which means that the two sentences also have different meanings.

 

[99bottles]

Yes, have also works in the context but remember that the two verbs have different meanings, which means that the two sentences also have different meanings.

Have means that as soon as you get to the top, you can see the city.

Get means that after you climb, you need to do something additional, e.g. focus your eyes.

Did I get the difference right? If not, what's the difference?

 

[jutfrank]

Get here means something like 'come to have the opportunity of viewing' or 'come to have the possibility of viewing'.

You can think of get very loosely as similar to 'acquire'. The verb have is very different in that it's a state verb of possession. Obviously, you have to acquire something before you can say that you have possession of it.

 

[99bottles]

Get here means something like 'come to have the opportunity of viewing' or 'come to have the possibility of viewing'.

You can think of get very loosely as similar to 'acquire'. The verb have is very different in that it's a state verb of possession. Obviously, you have to acquire something before you can say that you have possession of it.

I'm not sure I understand the difference in that particular sentence. If I say have in that sentence, what do I mean?

 

[Tarheel]

I think most native speakers would have no problem with that. In my humble opinion, it would mean the same thing as the original. (jutfrank might disagree.)

 

[jutfrank]

I think most native speakers would have no problem with that.

I'm not saying there's a problem with using have.

In my humble opinion, it would mean the same thing as the original. (jutfrank might disagree.)

Well, it depends what you mean by 'mean the same thing'. There's practically no difference between the two sentences but there is a difference in meaning, created by the different meanings of the two verbs. I don't mean to say it's an important difference; I'm just making a point that if you substitute one word for another, you invariably change the meaning of the sentence the word is in. I consider this to be a very important thing to understand for someone like 99bottles, who aims one day to be the greatest living writer in the English language. He has a long way to go to develop the sensitivity of word choice that will get him there.

I'm not sure I understand the difference in that particular sentence. If I say have in that sentence, what do I mean?

The difference between get and have I've already explained. Now apply that difference in word meaning to the sentence meaning.